The Whole MuggleBorn Thing
by JohnnynotSid
Summary: Hogwarts: The Next Generation! Only not. Okay, maybe. Sort of. Totally. Except no. I mean... Okay, yeah. Only a bit less lame than it sounds  I hope .
1. Chapter 1

AN: Sort of an experiment, I guess. Basically, we're following the lives of some students of the new generation, including Harry's kids, some muggle-borns, and others. Harry will be a main character in this as well. Basically, it's my idea of how muggle-born kids of 2018 would learn to cope without the internet and electronic devices, among other things ( I figure by 2018 we'll all be more addicted than ever). Sort of seeing how these worlds will clash. There's going to be a whole cast of characters beyond just the ones introduced here (I was going to introduce them all, but the chapter started getting too long). So, tell me what you think!

Chapter One: Stephanie, Lily, Alan, Will and Winnie

Golda Kasner strode down the streets of the West End, glancing around and carefully reading the identifying numbers marking each building, many of which were theaters. The sights of the glittering structures were rather impressive to her. It was a fascinating testament to how devoted the other part of society was to their entertainment.

Finally she came upon the Bassry apartment building, a towering skyscraper with a gold awning. As she neared the door, an old muggle in a green uniform opened the door for her, smiling. The lobby was large and gaudy, with white marble floors, gold-colored reflective moldings and wood-paneled walls. Upon entering, another muggle, a large, younger man in a similar uniform, walked up to her, a gun attached to his belt.

"May I help you, Ms-?"

"Professor Golda Kasner. I am here to see the Levitts." Golda replied. "I believe they live in the Penthouse."

His eyes widened. "Just one second, Ma'am, I gotta call up and see if they're expecting you, just a second."

It seemed strange to Golda, but then again, there was very little that didn't seem strange to her in the non-magic world. It had been a while since she had spent a great deal of time in the Muggle world, but there it was.

The man held a small grey device to his ear and pressed a button. "Hello, Ms Parnell, sorry to bother you, but there's a lady here to see Ms. Levitt. Goes by Professor Golda Kasner. Early forties, tall, black, wearing a yellow dress- Yes, alright then, I'll send her up." He put the device down. "Alright, you're good to go. Just take the elevator at the end of the lobby, it'll take you right up.

"Thank you."

Golda strode over to the lone back elevator with the letters "PH" on top, pressed the "up" button and entered.

As the elevator rose, Golda rehearsed what she planned to say to these muggles. It had been a while since she had really spoken to any, the last being her maternal grandfather, and that had been back when she was a child. Since then, she had lived like any other witch, rarely venturing into Muggle territory except to get somewhere else. Now, she regretted it.

Oh, why, why had she agreed to do this? When McGonagall had mentioned this to the teachers, she had jumped at the chance to do it. She had been so eager to prove that she had no issue with Muggles or muggle-born students that she volunteered to meet with this student's parents without even thinking of the consequences. Muggle society had definitely changed in the last thirty years. What was she doing there?

Before she managed to Apparate out of there, the doors open to another marble foyer. She was greeted by three children staring up at her curiously. Strangely enough, one of them, the eldest, a girl of about eight, looked to be of Asian descent. The next oldest, a boy, was black, and the youngest was a little white girl of about two clutching a blanket and sucking her thumb.

"Um, hello." Golda said, nervously.

The oldest responded. "Are you the witch?"

"I-I am." She replied. The two youngest backed away looking frightened, but the eldest stayed still.

"Are you a good witch, like Glinda, or a bad witch?" The girl asked bravely.

"Don't worry, I'm not a bad witch, I'm not here to hurt you, just talk to your—er, parents. I'm Professor Kasner."

"I'm Lyla, and this is Max and Arabelle."

"Well, are you good children, or bad children?" Golda asked.

"Good children."

Then, a tired-looking woman with brown hair tied into a lazy bun with front strands falling in her face carrying an infant came out into the foyer.

"You three, stop bothering the lady, go in the den and play. Lyla, take your sister." The woman responded, handing the baby of and then extending her hand. The children left, glancing over their shoulders nervously as they walked off.

"You must be Professor Kasner, sorry about that. Welcome."

"Yes, I am, and I assume you're Mrs. Levitt?" Kasner said, shaking it.

"Oh no, I'm Mary Parnell, the nanny. Rachel and Ben are the ones you're meeting with. They're waiting for you in Rachel's office. Come on, I'll show you. Would you like a drink?"

"No, that's fine." Kasner replied, following Mary down a hall to her right. The apartment was large but strangely homey, with family pictures and art lining the walls. Mary came up to a white door and knocked.

"Come in!" Came a voice and the two women entered the room.

Ms. Levitt's office was a large, circular room with powder blue walls, hardwood floors and cherry wood furniture with white draperies. At the other end of the room at the center of the large windows was a large, handsome desk. A champagne leather couch sat at an angle off to the right corner, three wooden chairs sat in front of the desk and a small love seat sat perpendicular to the desk off to the side of it. Behind the desk in a comfortable-looking chair sat an attractive, dark-haired woman dressed in an expensive-looking pale pink suit. Standing over her was a younger woman with red hair. On the love seat sat an extremely handsome blonde man in a khaki pants and blue golf shirt.

Once the doors were opened, the three adults looked up and came forward, smiling.

"Professor Kasner!" The older woman said, smiling, "How lovely of you to come!"

The woman shook Professor Kasner's hand, dismissed Mary quickly, and then turned her attention back to Kasner. "I'm Rachel Levitt, Stephanie's mother, this is my husband, Ben Archer, Stephanie's stepfather, and my assistant Carrie. I'm so happy you could come and meet with us. Please, sit down, can we get you a drink?"

"Oh, no thank you, your nanny already offered me one. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ms Levitt."

"Oh please, call me Rachel."

Golda looked nervously at Carrie.

"Oh, don't worry, Carrie is practically family. And even if she wasn't she's bound by a confidentiality agreement. She won't tell a soul."

Though Rachel seemed nice enough, there was something that bothered Kasner about her. There was something wrong with Rachel's face. Though her mouth was smiling, the parts of her face around her eyes seemed a little… stiff. They all sat down around the desk and Kasner felt a little awkward.

"You have a lovely home."

"Oh, thank you."

"And, um, your children are darling."

"OH, thank you, we're very proud of them." Ben said. "I'm sorry Stephanie's not here yet. She had Rugby practice earlier today and it ran late. She only got home a few minutes ago and needed to take a shower, but she'll be out soon."

"Oh, well, while we are waiting for her, why don't we discuss the school. You requested a representative from Hogwarts to come and meet with you about your daughter's enrollment, yes?" Kasner asked.

"Yes, you see, while we have the utmost respect for you all and your culture, I'm afraid we really don't know anything about it or what any of this means. When we first got your letter we thought it was some sort of joke or some desperate amateur writer trying to get our attention." Rachel said.

"Rachel is a film maker and theater director and playwrite," said Ben, reading Golda's expression. "We get a lot of people trying to sell us ideas for movies and plays. It wouldn't be the first time somebody did something as strange as send us a weird letter."

"Oh, I see. Well, Hogwarts is a school of magic, it teaches sorcery to young people with magical powers."

"When you say 'Magical Powers' what exactly do you mean?"

Golda took her wand from her pocket. "If I may give a demonstration?"

"Certainly." Rachel said, looking a little nervous.

Golda pointed it at one of the picture frames on Rachel's desk, turned it into a mouse (causing Carrie to scream), then changed it back.

"So, you can transform objects?" Ben asked.

"Among other things." Golda replied, putting her wand back in her pocket.

"And there's a whole society of people like you?" Rachel asked. Golda nodded.

"Then why haven't we heard of people like you before?"

"We like to keep ourselves secret, not reveal ourselves to muggles unless necessary."

"Muggles?" Ben asked.

"Non-magical people."

"And you believe my daughter is one of you?"

"Yes, of course. Otherwise, we would never have sent a letter. Surely there have been things that have happened at certain points around Stephanie that you couldn't explain."

Rachel's expression darkened. "Yes, actually. A few times. There was one time when she was being punished by a teacher she didn't like and his nose- changed."

"Those were Stephanie's magical abilities manifesting themselves. It often happens to magical children."

"But what I don't understand is, how is it that she's a witch? I'm not magical, nor was her biological father."

"Oh, it's actually quite common. Magical children show up in Muggle families quite a bit. Muggle-borns, they're called."

Rachel looked down. "It's hard to believe."

"If… you don't mind me asking, where is Stephanie's natural father?"

"Oh, he's long gone. Left when Stephanie was a baby, haven't seen or spoken to him since. But I'm certain he wasn't magical. He came from a very boring, conventional family, there was never anything remotely spectacular about him. I met him in High School, anyways."

"I see. I'm sorry."

"Don't worry about it. Stephanie and I have had Ben." Rachel said, looking affectionately at her husband. "So, this school is going to teach her how to use her magical powers. And there will be others like her there, other muggle borns?"

"Oh yes. There are seven school years at Hogwarts, all which take place at the same time as a regular Muggle school year. The school has a wonderful history. It's been around for over a thousand years and has produced some amazing witches and wizards. The Headmistress, Minerva McGonagall, is a wonderful, brilliant witch and Stephanie will be perfectly safe and be exposed to a wonderful world."

"That's all well and—"

Rachel was then interrupted by a knock on the door. "Come in!"

The door opened revealing a girl of about eleven and a couple of younger faces peering into the office in the background. The girl came in and closed the door behind her. Golda observed her carefully.

She was a rather normal-looking girl. Dark hair like her mother's, blue eyes, tanned. She was tall, wearing a blue tank-dress, arms and legs rather muscular, very athletic-looking. But her face was round and full, a sharp contrast to the rest of her.

She ran over, kissed her mother on the cheek, said hello to Carrie, then turned and looked at Kasner.

"Stephanie, this is Professor Kasner, she's one of the teachers at the school. Professor Kasner, this is my Stephanie."

"Hello, Professor. It is, like, totally cool to meet you." Stephanie said, shaking Kasner's hand. Golda resisted the urge to laugh.

"Likewise, Miss Levitt."

Stephanie sat down next to her step-father on the loveseat. He put his arm around her and pulled her close with genuine affection.

"Professor, I always knew my little girl was special and while I don't have any issues with her learning magic, I am worried about her well-being. Sending my oldest child off to a school I've never heard of run by a group of people I didn't even know existed until recently—well, you can understand my misgivings."

"There's no safer place in the world than Hogwarts."

"It's not just that. I'm just... worried about her having some sort of culture shock. She knows nothing about the wizarding world, nor do either of her parents. I mean, this letter… 'We await your owl'? We had no idea what that meant, we sent our response by post but… and this supply list…. 'Standard Book of Spells, Grade One'? 'Dragon Hide Gloves'? "Work Robes'? 'Magical Theory'? 'Standard size two pewter cauldron'? 'Students may bring a cat or and owl or a toad'? 'First years are not allowed broomsticks'? Who keeps an owl as a pet? And that thing about broomsticks? That's true? Carrie, Ben and I all scoured the internet and book shops looking for magical textbooks. The only things we were able to find were some books on the wiccan religion and stupid fake spells for teenage girls. I couldn't even find anything on Google, nor could I find anything about Hogwarts."

"Well, the places you get those things are at a hidden magical place. And owls…. We keep them because they deliver our mail and-"

"But, I mean, what about Ringo?" Stephanie piped up.

Golda looked at the girl. "Ringo?"

"Ringo is my dog."

Golda grimaced. "I'm sorry, Miss Levitt, but dogs are not allowed."

"But he's like, totally small! He's a King Charles Spaniel and he's really well-behaved! I promise I'll take care of him!" Stephanie said, her eyes starting to produce tears.

"I'm sorry, Miss Levitt, but those are the rules." Golda hated saying that to her.

The tears fell. Ben looked nervous.

"Look, why don't I take Steph out for a few minutes until she calms down?"

"Alright." Rachel said.

The mother watched their retreating backs with a great amount of unhappiness. Once the door shut, she looked back at Golda.

"Look, isn't there anything we can do? Can't I talk to the headmistress? Stephanie loves that dog."

"I'm sorry, but dogs require too much care."

Rachel sat back and sighed. "See, this is part of the reason I'm worried. Stephanie is going to have to leave her family, all her friends, her dog, all to go live in this world she knows nothing about. I have no doubt she'll like to learn magic but… there's all sorts of things about your world we don't know and I don't know how well she'll be able to adapt. May I speak bluntly?"

"Certainly."

"Stephanie's a wonderful child but part of the problem is that she's also an immensely spoiled one. Look, I'm not trying to brag, but I am a very wealthy, powerful, and famous woman. I grew up poor and was determined to give any children I had a better life than I had. By the time Stephanie was born, I had already become rich. So, ever since her birth, she, like all my children, has lived in the lap of luxury. She's not a spoiled brat. We have made sure she's well disciplined, has good values and manners and she's a sweet girl and very smart. But there hasn't been a moment in her life where she hasn't been surrounded by family and help making her life as easy as possible." Rachel got up from her chair and began to pace as she spoke. "She's always lived in a sheltered environment and isn't accustomed to the unknown or dealing with it. Now, maybe it was a mistake to keep her so sheltered, but all I wanted was to protect her. I mean, I knew that eventually she'd go out in the world and leave home but I thought that it would be like with every other child I knew and that it would happen at eighteen when she left for college in a world she still sort of knew, not all of a sudden when she's still a young child of eleven in a world that is apparently completely unlike anything she's ever known. I'm assuming I don't have much choice about this magic school thing though. If she's got some kind of power in her, then she needs to learn to control it. But what I'm afraid of is sending her out into this new world that is completely unlike anything she's ever known without her family around, and having her break down because of it. I don't want my daughter freaking out or having issues that could harm her development and keep her from succeeding. I mean, are you Muggle-born?"

Golda shook her head. "I'm afraid not. But yes, I can understand your concern. But really, Stephanie won't be the only muggle-born child at Hogwarts, I'm sure she'll make friends."

"I just wish there was some way, I don't know… How do you all usually help Muggle-born children adapt? Isn't there some kind of program or something?"

"No, I'm afraid not. All first years are helped along by teachers and prefects, but nothing special for muggle-borns."

"See, that's where I have a problem! I mean, I can't believe you guys don't have some kind of program or orientation thing for muggle-born students! I mean, I'm sure there's all sorts of things about your world that are different in your world. It just doesn't seem fair or right."

Golda felt her stomach sink. She could see what this woman was saying and was actually rather touched by the concern Rachel showed. And she had a good point. While muggle-born students managed to adapt, it could be hard for them. Even as a child who grew up in a magical household, Hogwarts did take a while to get used to. It had to be harder for Muggle-borns, especially ones as sheltered as Stephanie. She wanted to help these people, she really did.

And then she had an idea.

"I might have an idea, actually. If you don't mind, just a second…."

"Alright, go ahead."

Golda got up and exited the office. Once outside, she pulled a two-way mirror from her pocket and said, "Professor McGonagall."

"Yes, Kasner, what is it? Have you met with the Levitts?"

"Yes, Headmistress, and they're a very nice but they did bring something troubling to my attention."

"What is it?"

Kasner explained Rachel's worries to McGonagall in detail. "And I thought, maybe if we contacted a wizarding family we know to meet with Ms. Levitt and her family and I don't know… teach them a few things and guide them a bit prior to term? So that the child is somewhat prepared?"

"That's an excellent suggestion, Golda." Minerva smiled. "You know, sometimes it's hard to believe you're a Slytherin."

"Well, that's one of the reasons I wanted to meet with them." Golda replied.

"I think I know just the family to call, too. Alright, I'll try to make arrangements. You go and speak to Mrs. Levitt and I'll speak with you soon."

"Thank you, Minerva."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Lily Potter got up much earlier than was usual for her, despite the fact that she hadn't gotten much sleep the night before anyways. She felt full of energy anyways, over the absolute excitement. Today was the day. The images of Gwenog Jones and the other Holyhead Harpies that adorned her walls seemed to be waving and smiling at her with more gusto and enthusiasm, as if reflecting her own feelings.

She decided to take advantage of the time she had to take a long time in the bathroom. Ever since the summer began it had been back to sharing it with her two older brothers and having it to herself was one of the few things she missed about being the only one of her siblings who wasn't in school. But first, she went over to the corner where the loose floorboard was, lifted it, and grabbed the razor she had underneath. She had stolen it from the Muggle drug store in town months ago. She wasn't usually a thief, but she had needed it badly. She had been wanting to shave since age six when she noticed how unattractive the frizzy red hair on her legs was. But when it started sprouting under her arms, she became desperate. Her mother had insisted she was still too young, but Lily wasn't about to send the summer without being able to wear a tank top. So she lifted it from the muggle shop and kept it hidden. Unfortunately, her luck being what it was, she only ever got to shave her pits thank to her usually quite limited time to shower thanks to sharing it with two boys. Normally she'd just shave her legs at a different time of day, but Albus had this summer adopted the same habit James had the summer before: one of locking himself in the bathroom alone several times a day for several minutes and refusing to come out. Back when it was just James doing it, it was annoying, but with both of them, it was impossible to get any alone time in there. She had tried once at the beginning of summer, but then in the middle of the hair removal process, James had started pounding on the door and startled her so badly she accidentally shaved off a strip of skin from her left shin. It was incredibly painful and there was still a mark from it.

She had tried to talk to her parents about the two of them using the bathroom like this, but whenever the subject was brought up, they'd blush, look down, say something about James or Albus having their "special alone time" and refuse to say anything else.

But, from the sound of thing, her brothers were still sound asleep. So maybe at least this time she'd get to take care of her legs.

As it happened, she did. She emerged from her shower smiling and feeling fresh. As she combed her hair, washed her face and took care of everything else, she kept rubbing her calves together, loving the soft, smooth feeling of her freshly-shaved legs touching each other.

She put on the green sundress her mother had gotten her that was the exact color of her eyes and went downstairs to the kitchen to find her father already up, making eggs.

"You're up early." He said, smiling at her.

"I was too excited."

He grinned at her. He was actually pretty happy she was up. It would only be a few weeks before she left for school, and it felt more like a few hours. He was trying to grab every moment he could to spend with her before she left. It was going to be weird, not having the kids around.

Lily walked over to her Dad and peered at the stove. "Can you make mine over-easy?"

"I thought you liked them sunny-side up."

"I've been having them over-easy for two years."

Harry winced slightly. "Right… Sorry. Glad you're excited, though."

She nodded. "I really am. And you're going to be able to come this time too, which is awesome."

"Wouldn't miss it for the world. I can't wait to see you get your first wand or put on your Hogwarts robes for the first time."

She smiled. "What about the family we're meeting? Do you think they'll be like Aunt and Uncle Dursley?"

"No, Professor McGonagall says they're very nice and don't seem to have a problem with magic. When I got my letter, they did everything they could to keep me from reading it. Even moved us all out to a hut on the sea."

"Really?"

"Really. I never told you that story?"

Lily shook her head.

"Well, it was a couple of week before my eleventh birthday and…" Harry got to the part where Uncle Vernon had moved him upstairs once he finished the eggs and told the rest as they ate. Lily laughed out loud several times.

"What was your first day like?"

"Well, I was—"

He was interrupted then by the sound of an explosion coming from the living room. His stomach sank. "Wait just a second, sweetheart."

Harry went into the living room to find the head of the Minister of Magic himself floating among the flames. "Potter, there's an emergency. I need you to get to Hogwarts immediately."

"Kingsley, it's my day off; is this really-"

"Yes, Potter, a code black."

Harry's blood went cold. He gulped. "Very well then, I'll get there as soon as possible."

"I'm out." And with that, Kingsleys head disappeared.

His stomach in his pelvis, Harry went back into the kitchen.

"Sweetheart, I'm sorry, but something's come up. I've got to leave. I'll try to meet you at Diagon Alley as soon as I can. Tell your Mum, Aunt and Uncle that there's been an emergency. I'll see you soon."

"But Dad—"

He kissed on the forehead. "I'm sorry, Lily, but I promise I'll do whatever I can to be there later today."

Before Lily could say another word, he disapparated. The red-head groaned and went upstairs to her parents' bedroom to find her mother standing at her dressing table brushing her hair.

"You're up early. Excited, are we?"

But Ginny Weasley-Potter only got the response of a pout.

"What's wrong?"

"Dad, he's been called away. Some sort of emergency."

"What sort of emergency?" Ginny asked.

"He wouldn't say." Lily walked over to her parents' bed and sat in a huff. "He's going to miss everything."

"You don't know that. He just might be a bit late. Go tell your—"

Lily got up. "Yeah, I'll tell them."

The red-head went back to her room, opened her window and grabbed her Cleansweep twenty-one. At least this meant one more broom ride before leaving for school, she thought to herself glumly before shooting out into the sky.

~!~!~!~!~

The bookstore was crowded as it always was at that time of year. Alan wasn't surprised, after all, it was only a couple of weeks until the term started. But what did surprise him was how small and cramped the place was. He would have thought there would be some kind of spell to make it bigger on the inside.

Alan desperately needed to find someone who worked there. He was completely unfamiliar with this sort of place. He and his mother kept getting jostled. He wished he could shrink himself down, like Wasp and fly around until he found an unattended worker.

"Oh, Alan, I think there's one!"

His mother pointed over to a grumpy-looking red-headed witch wearing the same blue hat as the other Flourish & Blotts employees. Alan and his mother rushed over to her.

"Excuse me, Ma'am." Alan said carefully, "My mum and I were looking for schoolbooks. It's my first year and-"

"You and several other children. Go stand over there and I'll be right with you with your books, alright Dearie?."

She had pointed over to a corner where two mousy-haired children stood with their Dad. The two were tapping away at their IComps. Alan felt a sense of relief, at least there were a couple of kids around who were muggle born.

His mother and him walked over to the group. Alan smiled at the girl. "Hi, I'm Alan. I guess you're muggle-born too, huh?"

The boy looked up from his IComp and extended his hand to shake it. "I'm Will Madison, and that's my twin sister Winnie. Pleasure."

Alan shook his hand and Will went back to typing at his IComp.

"So, um, you guys are starting at Hogwarts too, huh?"

"Yep." Will replied, his head still bent over the device. "Bit of a shock for us, but we're pretty excited. Winnie especially."

Alan looked back at Winnie. "Yeah? "

The man behind the girl suddenly grabbed her IComp from her hands. "Winnie! Someone is talking to you!"

The girl looked pained by losing her device, then looked at the boy. "What's your name?"

"Alan. Alan Green."

"My brother and I will facebook you tonight, then. What school did you go to before?"

"Pine Ridge. It's in Sheffield."

"Sweet."

"I'm already on it. There." Will looked up. "Just sent a friend request."

Alan pulled his own IComp from his pocket and checked it. "Alright, approved."

Winnie looked at Will. "Can you-?"

"Already on it." Will typed a few things in and looked at the others. "Got it. Sent a request for you, Sis."

Alan looked down. Sure enough, he had gotten another friend request from Winnie's page. He approved it with a smile. His mother snorted and looked at the twins' father.

"Beth Green," said Alan's mother, extending her hand to Mr. Madison.

"George Madison. Amazing, isn't it?"

"This place? Oh, yes. I couldn't believe it when we got the letter, thought it was some sort of joke."

"We did as well. But it turned out to be legit. Did you have any trouble finding this place?"

"Oh yes, we were looking around here for ages, until Alan said to me, 'Why don't we ask around in that pub?' I couldn't see which pub he was pointing to. Just looked like an old abandoned corner to me, but sure enough, he leads me through the door and the bartender was very nice."

Just then, the red-headed witch came over with three huge stacks of enormous books. She dropped them onto the low shelf n front of them with an impressive _thud!_ The entire party gaped.

"Excuse me, ma'am, but is there any way we could get these on e-book?" Beth asked.

The witch looked at her like she was speaking another language. "E-book?"

"You know, an electronic book? To put on my son's IComp so that he wouldn't have to carry all these around constantly. They seem very heavy."

The red-headed witch's eyes narrowed. "Electronic books? Really? My husband and daughter in law would be very interested in hearing about that. But, well I'm afraid electronic devices don't work at Hogwarts."

Somehow, all five people managed to let their jaws drop lower.

"Wh-what?" Winnie asked.

"Well, yes, you see, all the magic in the air makes all those little things go haywire." She explained.

All three kids looked at each other. Alan was absolutely dismayed. How was he supposed to stay in contact with all his friends at home? It had been bad enough learning that he'd have to leave home… but without being able to check on his Mom whenever he wanted to?

"But, how are we supposed to contact our kids?" Beth asked.

The witch's eyes widened. "Well, you can write them letters, of course! Just get an owl!"

"An owl. You people still send letters. And you do it with owls." George stated, dumbfounded.

"Well yes, you mean muggles don't send letters anymore?" The witch asked.

"No, not really. Just the elderly. We use phones and email." Beth explained. She was not happy. She hadn't had to write an actual letter since she was in her twenties. How was she supposed to trust some bird with her sole form of contact with her son?

"Well, I'm sure you'll get used to it. As for their books- they can ask an older child to cast a weight-reducing charm on their books. It's what they all do. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to see to some other customers."

And with that, the witch walked off, shaking her head and muttering.

"Dad, I don't want to go to Hogwarts anymore." Winnie said.

"Sweetheart, we can't pull out now, you two are already enrolled."

Winnie looked at the huge stack of books in front of her and started to cry.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two: Hugo, Rose, Caroline, Mary, and Alex

Rose's room was not like other girls' rooms, at least in Hugo's experience, and his experience was limited to that of his female cousins. Victoire's room was very fancy, with a double canopy bed, masks and fans on the blue walls. White flowing curtains. Molly had lots of pink: pink bed spread, pink curtains, pink walls and white furniture. Dominique had posters of bands and pictures of her and her friends lining the walls. Lucy had purple walls, trophies, and clothing everywhere. Roxanne and Lily all had Quidditch posters, particularly of the Holyhead Harpies. But even though their rooms were different, they all had a theme, color scheme, and particular sort of décor.

When it came to Rose's room, it was like two different rooms were battling it out for dominance. Her walls a pale blue, her furniture wenge wood with bronze metal finishings. There were navy blue and bronze Ravenclaw pendants on the walls. But the Ravenclaw paraphernalia was nothing compared to the almost-blindingly orange Chudley Cannons posters neatly placed in between every Ravenclaw decoration. Her bedspread and curtains were the same orange. In a lot of ways it was a sharp contrast to Hugo's room- he was a total slob- but even with his clothing and dismantled Muggle electronics everywhere and half-open drawers it still looked better than her pristinely clean room because at least his decorations didn't clash horribly.

It really didn't make much sense. Prior to her going to Hogwarts, Rose's room had been a neater version of Lily's: Emerald green décor with numerous Holyhead Harpy posters, including one signed by Gwenog Jones which had been her most prized possession. But upon coming home after her first year, she had given all her posters, even the signed one, to Lily and replaced all the green with blue, bronze and neon orange. Hugo didn't really get it- The Chudley Cannons were awful. They had been awful for over a century. Their motto was "Let's Keep Our Fingers Crossed and Hope For the Best." Aside from Rose, the only other person he knew who actually was a fan of the Cannons was Dad, and Hugo had always felt a lot of that was more out of stubbornness than anything. Why anyone would go from being a fan of the Harpies- who had been a top-three team for fifty years and had won the League Championship for nineteen of those years- to being a fan of the Chudley Cannons was very confusing to him.

Especially since it created for Rose a room which actually hurt to look at. Even after entering it numerous times before, Hugo still winced at the decorations.

"What is it, Squirt?"

Hugo looked over to find, to his complete lack of surprise, his sister sitting at her desk with an enormous book and a long sheet of parchment that already had about a foot and a half occupied by her tiny script in front of her, fully dressed and looking like she had been awake for hours.

Hugo felt a familiar sense of inadequacy. He was still in his pajamas and hadn't even brushed his teeth yet. He had only been awake for a few minutes and the first thing he had done when he woke up was run downstairs for some bacon. But he was glad he did, because upon entering the kitchen he found his cousin Lily telling his parents that Uncle Harry had been called away for some huge emergency. Upon hearing that, Hugo forgot about the bacon and ran upstairs to tell his sister, excited over the concept of knowing something of importance that she didn't.

"There's been an emergency. Uncle Harry's not coming with us today." Hugo told her.

"Oh, that's unfortunate." She replied before turning her head back to her writing.

Hugo's stomach sank. "But… I mean… aren't you curious about what it is?"

"I'd prefer not to think about it. Uncle Harry's the Head of the Auror Office, so any emergency that commands his presence probably includes a good deal of danger, and I don't want to think of our Uncle in danger."

The eleven-year-old pouted. His sister always had an answer to everything and always thought she knew better all the time. Hugo liked to imagine his Uncle and father (also an auror) of having fantastic and fun adventures whenever they went to work. Traveling all over the world and taking down dark wizards and performing all sorts of interesting magic. He hated being reminded that their jobs included a great deal of real, life-threatening danger. He liked to think of his Uncle and Father of being indestructible heroes who always knew what to do and couldn't be touched by evil dark wizards.

"Well, thought you ought to know, anyways," Hugo said before leaving her room.

He went back to his own room and started sifting through the piles of clothes on his floor for something to wear that wasn't dirty or torn or too small or a gift from Grandma Molly. Among the piles, he came upon a small metal tablet with a glass front.

The sight of it immediately cheered him up. The tablet was a muggle device—something called an IComp. Hugo had numerous muggle electrical devices- many of which he had taken apart in an attempt to figure out how they work- but this one was special as it was one of the few devices he had left that were not in pieces. That was because he wasn't willing to risk permanently breaking it since his parents refused to repair any piece in his collection anymore.

He had seen muggles with IComps summon projections from it and interact with those projections, talk into them as if they were speaking to another person, tap at the surface, and plug connected wires into their ears. Almost every muggle seemed to have one, and they seemed obsessed with them. His own IComp was a special gift from his grandparents. Unfortunately, he could not figure out how to make it work or what to do with it. He and his Grandpa Arthur had taken a look at it, but couldn't figure out how to make it work. It came with a set of instructions, but they looked long and boring and Hugo didn't care for reading things that were long and boring—that was his sister's area. His grandpa Arthur couldn't read it either—his eyes had gotten so bad he couldn't read much of anything. Hugo had tried to get Rose to do it, but she refused and none of the other adults or cousins were willing to do it. Grandma and Grandpa Granger hated a lot of the new technology as well. Grandpa Arthur was the only one who shared his obsession with muggles.

But the sight of the device made him feel better. Today they were going to meet with a muggle-born girl and her father. Real muggles! Hugo would be able to ask them to show him how to use it! They could answer all his questions!

Hugo stuffed the IComp into the pocket of the jeans he had pulled out of one of the piles and grinned. Today would be a good day.

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Caroline Kressly awoke to the sound of "You, Me and Your Firebolt" by Stellaria Hunter coming from her alarm clock and grinned. She always knew it would be a good day when the first thing she heard was the voice of her idol. She hopped out of bed, grabbed her hairbrush and started singing into it in front of her mirror. In her reflection, she could see the inhabitants of her posters singing along with her. She winked at them.

"You said 'Hey Girl, come for a ride'/ Little did I know much you had to hide/Your eyes glittered like a crystal flame/more silver than a Unicorn's mane/And while I know I know it's not my fault/I'll never forget you, me and your firebolt!" She sang out, making sure to hit the notes perfectly. She really hadn't done too bad considering she hadn't even done her vocal exercises yet. Caroline danced into her bathroom, brushed her teeth, flossed very carefully, washed her face and applied her anti-acne ointment. She smiled as she brushed her hair. It was a dark, dark brown with reddish highlights, too dark to be auburn, too light to be red-black. It was long, thick, and wavy, the kind of hair that made boys write songs about you.

She brushed it carefully, separating her mane into locks and brushing each one a hundred times. It was one of her many, many morning rituals. Upon completion, she moved on to her next one: finding the perfect outfit to wear that day. It wasn't hard, really. There wasn't one piece of clothing in her wardrobe that she didn't like. It was going to be sad having to wear a uniform all the time at school.

Fifteen minutes of getting dressed and waving to future imaginary fans in the mirror later, Caroline made her way downstairs to the living room and sat down at the grand piano sitting in the middle.

Twenty minutes later, in the middle of her scale, she was interrupted by her mother.

"Caroline, that's enough! Come get breakfast, I want to get an early start!"

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

The smell of bacon sizzling wakened her. She smiled for a second at the prospect of it until she remembered what day it was. Mary climbed out of bed, grabbed the rosary beads lying on her night stand and knelt down on the cold hardwood floor, propping her elbows up on the surface of her bed. She said the rosary and then asked God to let there have been some sort of mistake.

Not sure what else to say that she hadn't said numerous mornings and evenings prior to this one, Mary crossed herself and went to the bathroom. She crossed Lizzie in the hall, much to her discomfort. Her sister's blue eyes narrowed and before Mary could say anything, Lizzie turned up her nose and ran off to her room.

Mary continued on to the bathroom and turned the water on to make it scalding hot. She scrubbed at herself as hard as she could until her skin turned red. She knew it was a futile effort, but she did so anyway. Upon leaving the shower, she stared at herself in the mirror for a long period of time before moving to blow-dry her wavy blond hair. She brushed her teeth, trying not to think, and finished her regular grooming regimen before returning to her room and dressing in her white-peasant blouse and jeans.

When she got downstairs, she discovered that the only thing she had been looking forward to that day—the bacon—had all been consumed. Judging by the way her sister's cheeks buldged out in unattractive lumps, Lizzie had been quick to wolf it all down.

"Good morning, Mary," her mother said as Mary sat down. Before she could start serving herself, her mother grabbed her plate and started doing it for her, throwing copious amounts of scrambled eggs and fruit salad onto Mary's plate. "Did you sleep alright?"

"Fine." Mary lied. She had been beset by nightmares all night. Horrid dreams of women with green skin performing animal sacrifices and red horned beasts clawing at her. But she wasn't going to tell her parents that.

"Are you sure? We thought we had heard some noise coming from your room." Her father said.

"Must have been talking in my sleep." Mary said weakly.

Lizzie rolled her eyes. "Like you weren't already enough of a freak."

Mary felt like she had been punched in the stomach. Her eyes filled with tears and she ran upstairs to her room and climbed under her bed. She sobbed to herself, hating her life.

Before long, the door creaked open and then shut.

"Mary, she didn't mean that." Her father said. "Come out from under the bed and let's talk about this."

She obeyed him. He picked her up like he used to when she was very small and sat down on her bed with her in her lap. Mary propped her chin on his shoulder, soaking his shirt in tears as he rocked her gently. "Your sister doesn't hate you."

"Yes she does!"

"No, she doesn't. She's just jealous."

"Jealous? Are you kidding? Why would she be jealous of me? I'm going to go to Hell!"

"Look at me." He said, taking her chin in his hands and forcing her to face him. "You are not going to Hell. Jesus still loves you even if you are a… a…"

"A witch." She finished for him bitterly.

"Well, special, anyways. Look, you have always been a good girl and I've never known you to dabble in magic or anything bad. This… whatever it is… is strange, yes, but that doesn't make it evil. Just because you were born a certain way does not make you evil. It's not like you chose this. It just happened."

"Well, can't we ignore it? Suppress it somehow?" She asked.

"Sweetheart, remember what you did to Father Mike when you were seven? DO you really want an accident like that happening again. It's best that you go to this school to learn to get these… abilities… under control. This happened for a reason, and God isn't going to hate you for it. And your sister… she'll get over it. She'll come to understand. You just have to give her some time."

Mary tried to believe him, but the fact was he had given her this talk numerous times over the past several weeks and it hadn't worked then either. It didn't change the fact that she was cursed.

However, she was good at faking the whole "being comforted" thing by now and smiled at her father.

"Alright. Let's head to London then."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Alex couldn't stop staring at everything. The bustling street looked like something out of a Charles Dickens novel, people in cloaks, pointed hats and robes bustling along the streets. It was a fascinating array of clothing that took vintage to a whole new level. And the shops! Eeylops Owl Emporium, Flourish and Blotts.. and most interesting of all—a shop called The Weasley Wizard Wheezes that had what looked like miniature explosions coming out of it. It was all so wondrous that he was too busy marveling at it all to even let the amount of people staring at him bother him as much as it usually did.

His father tapped him on the shoulder and Alex looked up.

_How about we get the hard part over with and buy your uniforms first? _Dad asked him.

"Yeah," Alex said out loud. "And Dad, please, stop using your hands to speak to me, I'm looking right at your lips. It's distracting and I need to practice lip-reading. I used my crutches today specifically so I couldn't sign, remember?"

"Sorry." His dad said, catching himself just before he signed the word as well.

They headed over to Madam Malkins' robe shop. The woman behind the counters' eyes widened at the sight of Alex.

"Hogwarts?" She asked nervously.

"Yes." Alex said.

Her stare became even more pronounced in its confusion. A common reaction people had when they heard Alex speak. As he understood it, his voice sounded very strange and different from regular peoples'.

"I'm deaf, that's why my voice is like that. And I'm a spinal bifida survivor." He informed her, getting the explanation out of the way. "I need the crutches to stand and walk."

"He needs them to stand?" The woman said, looking at Alex's Dad. "That's going to make things difficult…"

"You can talk to me as long as I see your lips move." Alex told her. It was really annoying when people started talking to his mother or father about him while he was still in their presence upon hearing he was deaf. Like he wasn't even there. Even if he couldn't read lips, it wasn't like he was blind, too. He could still see them talking and could always tell from their expressions that they were talking about him. He had worked really hard to learn to communicate without signing. "I can sit while you deal with my arms and head and then stay upright on my crutches while you do my measurements. I can stay quite still. My Dad can help you with it, if you like, he's a tailor."

She bit her lip. "No, that's alright. I can manage. He can wait out here and you can go in the back. There's three other students in the back being fitted right now. Come along."

"How long will it take?" Alex's Dad asked.

"About ten minutes or so. We've got two girls being fitted now as well, but it shouldn't take long."

Alex followed the witch to a back room. It looked like not unlike his father's shop: Four fitting platforms with step-stools next to them placed in indented portions of the wall with three mirrors lining them. Wood paneled walls and thin green carpeting. Four fitting rooms closed off with green curtains. Alex smiled. He felt at home here.

There were two girls about his age getting fitted in robes. One was blond and had a rather glum look on her face, and the other, a brunette. A witch in the same green outfit as the one who had brought his back and an old wizard in a tailor's uniform with a green vest were crouched at the hem. Like everyone else, they all looked at him strangely.

"What's wrong with your legs?" The brunette asked, her face genuinely curious.

"I have spinal bifida. I can't use them," Alex explained, "And before you ask me what's wrong with my voice, I'm deaf too."

"Then how'd you know what I said?" She asked.

"I can read lips."

"Oh." She said. "Then I'll try to talk more slowly so you can understand. But can't your parents just fix your ears. I'm sure there's some sort of charm that can fix you."

"My parents are muggles, and I don't need to be 'fixed'."

"Oh, you're muggle-born. Sorry, didn't realize. Didn't mean to offend you. Mary here is muggle-born too." She said, pointing at the other girl.

Alex looked over at Mary as he sat in a chair and let the witch measure his arms and neck. She looked away from him, seemingly uncomfortable. A ripple of annoyance went up Alex's spine. He knew that there were people who had issues interacting with the disabled. And while he knew it wasn't out of any ill will, it still bothered him. Sure, when people first saw him, they were surprised and he had no problem with that; it was inevitable. But the people who couldn't get over it pissed him off. He didn't understand what their deal was. They acted almost like they could catch deafness or spinal bifida from him, like he wasn't a normal person. But he was just like anyone else, he just had some things a bit more difficult. He wasn't ashamed of who he was, but people like this made him feel almost like he should be.

He looked back at the brunette girl. "And you?"

"I'm Carolne Kressly. Half-blood. And what's your name?"

"Alex, Alex Miller."

"Nice to meet you," she said, "You're starting this year too, right?"

"Yeah."

"Cool, then we'll see each other."

"Do you have any siblings there?" Alex asked her.

"No, I'm an only child. But Mum and Dad say it's wonderful."

The witch helped Alex to his feet and he got up on the platform. She put a length of black fabric over his head and he managed with her help to put his arms in the sleeves one at a time."

"Do you know about the Houses?" Caroline asked him.

He shook his head.

"Well, there's four, and we get sorted into them by this hat on our first night there. There's Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw and Slytherin. You, you'll probably be in Hufflepuff."

"Why do you think that?" Alex asked her.

"Well, Hufflepuff is for nice hard-working people. You seem nice, and I imagine you have to work really hard not being able to hear or walk properly."

"Maybe, what House do you think you'll be in?"

"I want to be in Ravenclaw. That's the house for the really clever and creative and I'm an artist. Some day, I'm going to be a famous singer, just like Stellaria Hunter. She was in Ravenclaw too."

Alex looked over at Mary. "What about you?"

She didn't say anything. Annoyed, Alex looked back at Caroline.

"She's kind of weird." Caroline said, shrugging.

The witch tending to Caroline's hem looked up and said something to her. Alex couldn't tell what since he couldn't see her whole mouth, but figured Caroline was done since she pulled the cloth over Caroline's head.

The girl stepped down and looked at Alex. "I hope you can get your hearing fixed so you can hear me sing. I really do have a great voice. Anyways, I'll see you soon."

Caroline walked out, leaving Alex to wonder if he liked her or not.

Mary was done soon after, and she left silently. Alex was glad she was gone, but wished for some company, preferably from some kids who came from magic families. He wanted to hear more about the Houses.

As it turned out, he got his wish, because seconds later, a whole group of kids entered.

There were six of them, three girls and three boys. Two of the boys, each with dark hair, looked older than him, as did one of the girls, who had red hair. The other three looked to be about his age. A girl and a boy were red-heads while the other girl had black hair. All of them, save for the dark-haired girl, looked to be related.

They all gave him the usual look of surprise. The red-headed boy grinned at him. "You're muggle-born, aren't you?"

"Yeah. How'd you tell?" Alex asked him.

"Those metal things. What are they for?" He asked.

"I need them to walk. I can't use my legs or ears."

"You can't hear?" He asked.

"Hugo!" The older girl said, "That's not polite!"

"It's alright." Alex assured her. "I'm not embarrassed to be deaf. I can read lips."

"I'm sorry about my brother," the girl said, "He's just fascinated by muggles. I'm Rose Weasley, this is my little brother Hugo. These are our cousins, James, Albus and Lily Potter and our friend, Stephanie Levitt. Hugo, Lily and Stephanie are going into their first year. You are too, right?"

Alex nodded.

Hugo and Stephanie got up on the platforms. One of the older boys, Albus, nudged Lily.

"Go on, Lil."

"No," Lily said, "Dad said he wanted to be here to see me in my Hogwarts robes for the first time. I'm waiting for him."

"He didn't mean when you were getting fitted." Albus said, rolling his eyes. "None of the parents see that. Go on."

"Don't bother her, Albus. I'll go. I need new robes too." Rose said, getting up on the platform. She looked down at the wizard tailor. "I'm in Ravenclaw."

The wizard nodded and left the room.

"You're in Ravenclaw?" Alex said, "The girl who was in here before was telling me about the houses. What houses are you two in?" He asked Albus and James.

"We're both in Gryffindor. Everyone in our family is," said James, "Except Rose."

"And what's Gryffindor for? The girl I talked to said Hufflepuff is for Hard-working people and Ravenclaw is for the really smart people."

"Well, Gryffindors are brave, I guess. Not that people outside of Gryffindor aren't brave or non-Ravenclaws aren't smart or whatever." James explained, "Our Aunt Hermione, Rose and Hugo's Mum? She's the smartest witch in the country and was the top student in her year but she was in Gryffindor too. So whatever house you're in, you shouldn't worry too much as long as it's not Slytherin."

"Slytherin?" Alex asked.

"Yeah, it's supposed to be for ambitious wizards, but basically every dark wizard ever was in Slytherin. I mean, not all Slytherins necessarily go bad, but it's got the reputation. A lot of the kids in Slytherin are from blood-bigot families." James explained.

"Blood-bigots?" Alex asked.

"Blood-bigots are people who hate Muggle-borns and think muggles should be treated as second-class citizens. They don't think muggle born wizards and witches shouldn't be allowed to learn magic and think they're better than everyone else because they're what they like to call 'Pure-bloods'." Albus said, shaking his head.

"So they're like Nazis?" Alex asked.

They looked at him with confused expressions, except for Stephanie. Alex was shocked.

"You don't know what Nazis are?" He asked.

They all shook their heads.

"Nazis were these people back in the nineteen thirties and forties who took over Germany and all these other countries." Stephanie piped up. "They were led by this guy named Hitler and believed they were the 'Master Race' and everyone who wasn't part of their 'Master Race'- Jews, Homosexuals, the disabled, people who weren't white—they rounded up all those people in camps and tortured and killed them. There was this huge war to get rid of them."

The Weasley's and Potters' eyes widened.

"That's just like Voldemort and the Death Eaters, then, only they were muggles," James said.

Alex looked at him. "Voldemort? Death Eaters?"

It was Rose's turn to explain. "Voldemort was a dark wizard who was obsessed with enslaving muggles and muggle-borns and ruling the world. His followers were called Death Eaters. They were just like those Nazis, only instead of putting muggles in camps, they wanted to kill and enslave them. He was killed before we were born."

She looked like she was going to say something else, but she stopped there.

"Oh, that's good." Alex said. "I guess the magical community isn't as different as I thought, you all seem to have similar problems."

"That's what our parents always say." Hugo piped up.

The witch at Alex's feet tugged on his pant leg. He looked down.

"All done, Dearie." She said.

She pulled the robe off and Alex smiled at the others. "I guess I'll be seeing you, then."

They all said good-bye and Alex walked out, this time sure he liked the people he had just met.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Okay, some of the criticisms I've gotten have been warnings of character overload. So, before you read this, know that I promise, PROMISE, these two will be the last real main characters I introduce and they won't be in the chapter too long and their stories won't become major until much later on. I am simply introducing them now because they're in the same year as Stephanie, Alan, Alex, Will, Winnie, Mary, Caroline, Hugo and Lily. But don't worry about getting confused, after this one, the chapters will become more centered on certain characters and the story will become less all over the place. Seriously, this introduction is very short and you could even skip to the next part of this chapter if you want. Hope you enjoy!

Chapter Three: Kathy, Josh, and we finally get around to the plot

The sound of "Let's Dance to Joy Division" by The Wombats woke her to a very bad mood. Kathy regretted having selected that song to wake her, it should have been something soothing like "Blackbird" by the Beatles or "Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac. She had selected The Wombats because she thought the boisterous music would shock her awake, leaving no room to doze off. It had seemed the sensible thing to do when she set her IHome last night. She had been up until about three a.m. watching _Firefly_ on her laptop. She knew she shouldn't have, but she couldn't help it. In a few weeks she wouldn't be able to watch any of her favorite shows for months and she wanted to get in as much time as she could. That, and she love, love, _loved_ Summer Glau.

Kathy groaned and pulled herself out of bed and went to wash, brush, and comb the disheveledness from herself. Once out of bed and feeling like she had accomplished a great deal, she plopped down on her stomach atop her perpetually-unmade bed, awakened her IComp, and pulled up Josh's name.

The holographic image of the Arctic Monkey' poster Kathy knew to be pasted to the ceiling above his night stand filled her with a sense of mischief. So he wasn't up yet, then… Kathy took a deep breath.

"JOSH JOSH WAKE THE FUCK UP!" She screamed into her IComp.

The sound of the bed moving and her best friends' shout of "What the Fuck?" caused her to go into fits of laughter. A few seconds later, she was greeted by the image of Josh's thin, pale face scowling at her.

"Why'd you have to do that?" He asked.

"Because you did the same to me a few days ago," replied Kathy, grinning devilishly, her bad mood completely abated.

He stuck his tongue out for a second, then calmed himself. "Well, at least today is _Halo_ day."

Kathy's stomach quickened. That couldn't be right, could it? Kathy was sure that yesterday had been Final Fantasy XIX day, which meant today was a movie day. She pulled up her Calendar app and checked.

"Nice try," she said with a smile. "But today is Zombie Day. We're watching all the George A. Romero stuff, the Zombieland franchise, Sean of the Dead, and all of the 28 Days Later series. _Halo_ is tomorrow."

Josh groaned. "But it's not fair! Gaming should get more than one day. It's impossible to finish a game in a day!"

"What are you talking about? We finish lots of games within a day!" Kathy said.

"No, we finish portions of games using every cheat code available. That's not the same thing." Josh said.

"So?"

"So, it's not as fun."

"Seems all the same to me," Kathy replied, shrugging.

"That's because you're not into gaming the way I am."

Kathy rolled her almond-shaped eyes. "Something I thank God for every day."

"Kathy, we only have a few weeks left before no more games, no more movies, no more TV, no more e-books, no more phones or video chatting and no more internet. And I don't want my last memories of gaming before we go off to magic school to be of me just using cheat codes all the time." Josh whined.

"Josh, you're going to _magic school_. You remember how cool everything was there? Well, at Hogwarts it's going to be like fifty times as cool and instead of jus seeing magic, we'll be doing it ourselves. We're going to be practically living in a video game. I'm the one who has to replace my digital library with paper books and go without Star Trek, Doctor Who, Babylon V, Firefly and every other piece of sci-fi cinema and TV that I own. Something tells me that the Magical community doesn't deal with aliens often," Kathy said, "So it's not like I can pretend I'm on the Bridge of the Enterprise while I'm there."

Josh pouted. "Can't I just play Halo on my laptop while you watch zombies eat people?"

"No, because we're supposed to be packing our stuff while we're watching movies. That's the only way our Moms agreed to let us ditch soccer to watch movies and play video games for the rest of the summer, remember?" Kathy said.

"You have more stuff to bring than I do." Josh pointed out. "I'm almost done packing."

Kathy sighed. "Look, finish packing, and the after that, you can play Halo while we're watching the crappy Romero and 28 days stuff. But you have to watch and help me pack during _Zombieland,_ alright?"

Josh grinned and nodded. "Alright, deal. Now, can I go to the bathroom?"

"Sure, and make sure you brush your teeth before coming over here." Kathy said sternly.

"Roger that." Josh said, smiling. "See you in twenty."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

Harry Potter Apparated just outside the barrier of Hogwarts' grounds. He stared up at the black wrought-iron gate with trepidation. It was one of the few times he ever looked at his Alma Mater without anything but happiness. But then again, he hadn't visited Hogwarts in months, and it had been even longer since it had been for work.

Harry was tired of work. It had once been his dream to be an Auror, to make the world a better place. And while he definitely was doing that, he had grown tired of the fact that his own brand of world-improvement involved the capture and unhappiness of others, even if they did deserve it.

The fact was, whenever he was called, it always meant something bad had happened, and he had seen enough bad things to last him a lifetime. But to think of them happening here, at Hogwarts, just brought back some of the worst memories he possessed and filled him with even greater fear. This was, after all, the place his children called home eight months out of the year.

He was so lost in thought staring at the gate that it wasn't until he heard his name called that he realized Professor McGonagall and Kingsley were coming towards him.

"What is it?" Harry asked, eager to know exactly why he was at Hogwarts on the day he was supposed to be helping his children buy schoolbooks.

McGonagall gestured for him to enter without answering. Curious, Harry came though the gate.

"What is it?" He asked again.

McGonagall didn't give an answer and instead glanced around carefully. "Come with us, please."

Normally, when walking the halls of the castle, Harry would take his time to soak in the sights and the memories that came with them, compare what was the same, what was different and let himself be enveloped by the atmosphere that was so magical both literally and figuratively. But today was not the day for it, at all.

McGonagall brought him to the Hospital Wing. A tall black woman wearing a white apron over her magenta dress, apron, gloves, hair net and a surgical mask came out from behind a curtain.

"Potter, this is Professor Golda Kasner," said McGonagall.

Harry's eyes widened as he shook her hand, a truly apropos expression. "A pleasure. It's not every day that I meet the woman who invented the potion that allows me to see without glasses."

"It's not every day that I meet the man who conquered the Dark Lord." Kasner said, staring at his scar.

Harry instinctively put his hand to his forehead and tried to flatten his bangs over his face. They sprung up again as they always did.

"What do you teach, Professor Kasner?" Harry asked.

"Well, potions," she said, as if it were obvious.

"But Horace Slughorn is the Potions Master here."

"He was until I came to Hogwarts last year," Professor Kasner replied. "Then he switched to Defense Against the Dark Arts."

Harry's blood went cold. "Did you say Defense Against the Dark Arts?"

Kasner nodded.

"Surely one of your sons told you about this, Potter?" McGonagall said, surprised.

Harry flushed. "Um probably, I just forgot…" But Harry was distracted from thoughts of embarrassment of not knowing this fact by the realization of why he was here. He turned to McGonagall and Kingsley. "He's not-?"

McGonagall nodded and pointed to the curtain. Harry took a step towards it, but Kasner stopped him.

"I'm sorry, but the autopsy area can't be contaminated," She said through her mask. She reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled from it an apron, latex gloves, hair net, and surgical mask. Harry was annoyed, but he put them on anyways before going behind the curtain.

Harry had seen far more than his fair share of corpses in his life, particularly when it came to corpses of those he had known and cared about. But seeing a dead body was never really something he got used to, especially when it was someone he knew.

Horace Slughorn was definitely a person Harry had mixed feelings about. This was the person who had given Voldemort information on Horcruxes and lied about it. But this was also the man who had come through for them at the Battle of Hogwarts and had been a friend of Dumbledore's. Harry never really knew how to feel about Slughorn.

Seeing his corpse lying there, Harry was struck by just how immensely fat he was. It took three beds pushed together to hold him and with his robes opened in front, the great size of his man-boobs were disgusting in that way is almost hypnotic to look at. It took some effort to tear his eyes away and look at his face. Slughorn's face was a mask of fear.

Harry had seen Horace Slughorn scared before. Usually he tried to mask it and merely furrowed his eyebrows and looked uneasy. But this time, it wasn't just simple unease: it was complete and utter terror, like he was facing down the dark lord himself. His eyes were widened in terror, his mouth agape.

Everything about his appearance was pitiful.

"Where was he found?" Harry asked.

"In his office this morning." Madam Pomfrey said, "Professor Kasner found him."

"It's unfortunate," Harry said, staring down at Slughorn's face. "But I fail to see why it is exactly that I need to be here."

Kasner folded her arms. "Mr. Potter, we've checked him over three times already. Slughorn was old, but he wasn't dying. In fact, he was surprisingly healthy and energetic for someone of his age and weight. He was perfectly well when I spoke to him last night. There's no sign of organ failure, injury or illness. No trace of any poison we know, nothing. No sign of anything wrong with him at all except for the fact that he is dead. When I found him in his office, there was a real sign of a struggle. And take a look at this."

Kasner held up Slughorn's wand and tapped it with her own. "_Prior Incantatem,_" she said.

An image of Slughorn shielding himself in terror burst from the wand.

"Someone attacked him, Potter, it was murder," Kasner said lamely.

Harry's blood ran cold. A teacher murdered at Hogwarts…. It hadn't happened in over twenty years.

"But that's not the worst of it, Potter." McGonagall told him.

Harry really wished that he didn't have to ask. "What is it?"

"We believe he was murdered via the Killing Curse." Kingsley said.

Harry felt frozen. The Killing Curse. Aveda Kedavra. An incantation that had not been spoken since the defeat of the Dark Lord. Not even the darkest wizards around were willing to use it. It had gained a reputation since Harry had defeated Voldemort as a curse that would always backfire. Every wizard in the world knew that using the killing curse was what led to Voldemort's downfall, and no one used it. Not even former Death Eaters. Wizards who wouldn't hesitate to torture children to death were unwilling to use it. There hadn't been an instance of Aveda Kedavra in Europe in twenty-one years.

"For someone to use this curse again—here!" McGonagall said fretfully, "It's awful. Who would dare- and here! In the castle! And we had thought we finally had a Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher that would last more than a year!"

Harry didn't blame McGonagall for her feelings. Hogwarts was supposed to be a bastion of safety, a sanctuary. For the darkest of all dark magic to take place here was unthinkable. Only someone who was truly sick, desperate or both would dare to commit such an act. There was something dark here in the castle. Something terribly dark.

"Harry, this can't get out." Kingsley said. "If parents find out this took place, they won't let their children come this year. People still have memories of what it was like before you defeated Voldemort. No one wants to send their children into a hornet's nest."

Harry turned to Kingsley, amazed. "You want to _lie?_"

"If it means keeping people from panicking, then yes." Kingsley said.

McGonagall, looked around. "Let's discuss this in my office. Golda, will you come with us?"

Kasner nodded.

McGonagall's office was the same one that had been occupied by every Hogwarts Headmaster and Headmistress since the school began. It was a spacious tower lined with portraits of all the former heads of Hogwarts. McGonagall hadn't really changed it much from the way Dumbledore had it: There were numerous cabinets filled with interesting instruments, a large telescope pointing out the window: even Fawkes and his cage was there. Harry smiled at the bird before sitting down in front of McGonagall's desk.

"Minister, Professor, we can't lie. It would be no different than what Fudge and Umbridge were doing all those years ago." Harry said before Kingsley even got a chance to open his mouth.

"We're not going to do nothing about it, Harry, we're just keeping the manner of death secret until the perpetrator is apprehended." Kingsley said.

"You want to send hundreds of students to school where a dark wizard could be loose without even giving them a warning?" Harry asked, flabbergasted.

"He's right, Kingsley," McGonagall said, "It would be wrong. I can't let innocent students be endangered by some sick individual."

"When the Chamber of Secrets was last opened, was the news of it broadcasted through the press?" Kingsley pointed out. "No. If it had, every student would have been called home and there would have been panic. The school needs to continue, and it can't do that if nobody is willing to send their students to school."

"Parents were willing to do so when Sirius first escaped from Azkaban, and they thought he was a mass murderer. And when it came out that Voldemort was back, kids still came to Hogwarts." Harry pointed out.

"Your Godfather hadn't reached the school yet, nor had the Death Eaters. At least, not to their knowledge." Kingsley pointed out. "Dumbledore was around then as well."

Harry fumed. "Not in my seventh year."

"Not as many children came to Hogwarts that year, though," McGonagall pointed out. "There were many students who didn't return the year after Dumbledore died. And I'm afraid my name does not offer the same security."

"The school can't be shut down." Kingsley insisted.

"We can't lie, either."

The three of them were interrupted by the sound of someone clearing their throat. They all looked over to see Professor Kasner standing against a wall. Harry had forgotten she was there.

"There's something else you all are forgetting." She said. "It's only three weeks until school begins and we have no Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher, Deputy Headmaster or Head of Slytherin House."

McGonagall's eyes narrowed. "But of course, you would take over as Head of Slytherin House, Golda. And Bones will become the new Deputy Headmaster. But yes, we do need a new defense teacher."

Her expression changed then, as if a light bulb was going off in her head. "Potter, what if one of your office came to teach here? Surely the presence of an Auror would help set the parents' mind at ease. We can say Horace died of mysterious circumstances. We don't have to say it's the Killing Curse, but we don't have to lie either."

Harry smiled. "That's… actually a good idea."

"I can live with that." Kingsley said, nodding.

"It would have to be a Slytherin," Professor Kasner added.

A chill went down Harry's spine. He disliked both the insistance in Kasner's voice and the direction the conversation was going. "Why is that?"

"Because aside from Professor Slughorn," Professor Kasner said, "I was the only Slytherin teacher at this school. Now that he's gone, I'm the last. We can't just have one Slytherin teacher. The morale and representation of my house is bad enough already."

"It's not exactly hard to see why." Harry commented.

Kasner's eyes narrowed. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Oh, please, need I really remind you of the type of people Slytherin House has produced?" Harry sneered. "Blood-bigots, Death Eaters, oh, and let's not forget that its founder was the one who put a basilisk inside the school in order to help his heirs hunt down and kill muggle-borns."

Professor Kasner's cheeks went pink. "Our house also produced Veronica Goodchild, the Minister of Magic who created the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office and made were-wolf hunting illegal, Damocles, the inventor of the Wolfsbane Potion, Astoria Greengrass Malfoy, who led half of the Slytherin students at Hogwarts against the Death Eaters during the Battle of Hogwarts, and the Headmaster who you yourself insisted get a portrait in this very office and named your son after, Serverus Snape, the Great Phoenix Double Agent! Or what about the man who now lies dead? Who fought alongside you and your friends at the Great Battle?"

"You mean the one who educated Voldemort about Horcruxes?" Harry replied snidely, "Oh yes, there have been a few good Slytherins, but it's hardly a coincidence that every Dark Wizard that ever attended Hogwarts came from that house!"

"Oh really? What about that one who facilitated the return of Lord Voldemort and betrayed your parents… What was his name…. Oh yes… _Peter Pettigrew!_ As I recall, he was a Gryffindor. And what about that other loyal servant of the Dark Lord, the one who also helped him return one _Barty Crouch Jr_? _Also a Gryffindor, I believe_. Rita Skeeter, the journalist who practically slandered you and those closest to you, including Albus Dumbledore? A Ravenclaw, believe it or not. Not a Slytherin. And Cornelius Fudge, the one who made your life Hell and empowered Dolores Umbridge? Hufflepuff! His equally incompetent successor, Rufus Scrimgeour? Ravenclaw! Believe it or not, Mr. Potter, not everyone who comes out of the other Houses are perfect and Slytherin isn't just a place for those of our kind who are destined for evil. It's because of people like you who are so ready to condemn members of our house because of things many of us had absolutely nothing to do with that Slytherin residence is at an all-time low and my students are often bullied and ostracized. You condemn Slytherins for being bigots, yet with literally the same breath you excuse and rationalize prejudice against myself and the members of my House."

"Slytherins are picked by their personalities, not by heritage, race, or something they cannot help. They are picked because of who they are as people."

"Are you saying that Lord Voldemort and I are the same, then?"

"_ENOUGH!"_

The shout came from both Kingsley and McGonagall. And when the two most powerful people in the Wizarding World command silence, you shut up.

McGonagall looked at them both. "I am not going to listen to a debate about Houses. We will pick an Auror and try to give Slytherin members of the office extra attention, but being from another House will not be an automatic disqualifier. Golda, I promise, I've also coming to the end of selecting a new Muggle Studies and a new Arithmancy Professor. In both cases, I was down to two candidates, both offices have a former Slytherin teacher as a candidate. At least one will be a Slytherin, I promise, and if we do not pick a Slytherin for Defense Against the Dark Arts, both will be. Is that fair?"

Kasner hesitated. "There's only one problem, Professor. How can you hold off on picking the replacements for those two subjects long enough to go through picking a Defense teacher if you're down to the last two candidates? School starts soon."

McGonagall sighed. "That _is _a good point. I can't keep them waiting much longer. The decision will have to be made at most within the next two days." She looked at Harry. "Potter, I will need you to stay here today and help me pick someone from your Office."

"Today?" Harry replied uneasily. "But, Professor, today I'm supposed to be with my family."

"Potter, at least stay long enough to narrow down the list of candidates." McGonagall said tiredly. "I really can't afford to waste time and you're the one who will know the most about the aurors and who will be the best candidate. There's a great deal more I have to do before the term starts and I have to deal with this investigation as well. Please, just help me."

Harry's mind went to his family, but those cat-like eyes could not be argued with. He groaned. "Fine."

~!~!~!~!~!~!~!~

"Come on, Lily, you have to try it sometime." Albus said, nudging her.

Lily wished her stupid brother would shut up and that her stupid relatives would stop staring at her. She wished Stephanie had taken longer and needed to try out more than three stupid wands before finding the right one. She wished Ollivander would stop holding out the stupid box with the stupid wand in it.

"Dad's not here yet," she said. "He wanted to see me with my first wand."

"You can show him your wand later," said Aunt Hermione. "We've been here for almost half an hour and we have no way of knowing how long it will take you to find the one you need. If we wait any longer, we could be here until midnight. Besides, maybe you won't have found the right one by the time your Dad gets here."

"If you like, I could do a video recording of you trying wands on my IComp," offered Stephanie.

"Is there anything that thing _can't _do?" Hugo said admirably. "Show me how you do that!"

"Shut up, Hugo," Rose said. "Come _on_, Lily!"

"_Fine!_" She cried out angrily. She took the wand from the box and gave it a wave. Nothing happened.

She felt a little better. Maybe Aunt Hermione was right, maybe it would take a long time.

Ollivander grabbed another box. "No, not that one. Try this. Twelve inches, Cherry wood, Dragon Heartstring."

She waved that one. No response.

"Ten inches, rosewood, Unicorn hair."

Same response.

"Thirteen inches, oak, Thestral hair."

Nothing.

Lily smiled. It seemed it would be a while before they found the right one.

Six wands later, her father was still nowhere to be seen. Lily was getting nervous. What was taking him so long?

Ollivander was starting to get excited. "Oh, you're quite a mystery to solve, aren't you, Miss Potter? Just like your father—"

Then a light caught his eyes. "I've got it!"

He ran to the back of the shop and came back with a wand wrapped in a crimson velvet cloth.

"I just finished this one, it's special. Try it out. Fourteen Inches, Holly, Phoenix feather. Not the same Phoenix as supplied your father's wand's core but… very close."

Lily took it from him and all of a sudden, a strange warmth flowed from her fingers up her arms and down her spine. She had never quite felt a rush like this.

Lily knew she should be excited, but her stomach sank instead. She had waved her wand for the first time and her Dad hadn't been there to see it. The sound of everyone clapping and cheering rang hollow. Everyone else seemed far more excited by this than she was.

"We've found a winner!" Ollivander said, clapping along with the others. "Excellent, excellent!"

Ginny took the wand from Lily and went to pay for it. As she did, Stephanie came up to her.

"Look," she said, holding her IComp out. She tapped the surface and all of a sudden, a three-dimensional holographic image of Lily burst out of it. "I got it all. Your Dad will be able to see it."

"Great." Lily said. Stephanie obviously didn't understand. Her father had been here, even her mother had shown up earlier to see Stephanie with her first wand. But Dad hadn't been there, and he had promised.

Lily stared at her feet as they exited Ollivander's shop. But her stupor was broken by the sound of a voice calling out.

"Hey!"

Lily looked up. Running towards them down Diagon Alley was her father. He came up to them, then stopped short, heaving.

"I came… as fast… as I could…" He said. Lily saw the pain in his eyes when he spotted the shop they had just exited.

"I missed it?" He asked, sounding depressed.

"Sorry Dad, we waited as long as we could." James said.

"Damn! I'm so sorry, Lily, I really mean it."

Lily knew he did, but that didn't stop her from feeling hurt.

Harry couldn't believe his luck. McGonagall would only let him go once they had gone through every one of the three-hundred and sixty-seven Aurors in his office and narrowed it down to three. He had been forced to stay—it was the only way to get McGonagall to decide not to lie about Slughorn's death. And now, he had missed it. He had missed one of the most important moments in his daughter's life and it wouldn't be long until she was off to Hogwarts, far away, and he wouldn't be able to see her until Christmas.

"I recorded it!"

Harry looked down. Standing near him, holding a metal device up eagerly, was a small, dark-haired girl in a green blouse and blue jeans.

"I guess you're Stephanie, huh?"

She nodded. "I'm Stephanie, and this is my mother, Rachel Levitt, and my Step-Dad Ben Archer."

The two muggles shook Harry's hand.

"It's a pleasure to meet you." Ms. Levitt said. She was a fairly attractive woman in her early forties with rather tight, stiff features. Judging by the tailored designer suit she wore, she was a fairly successful woman.

"Pleasure." Harry replied.

"Uncle Harry, Uncle Harry!" Hugo said, pulling on his uncle's robes. "Stephanie has an IComp! It's like mine, and she showed me all sorts of things you can do with it. It can do anything! And she really did make a video recording of Lily with her wand!"

He nudged the muggle-born girl. "Show him, Stephanie!"

Stephanie tapped the surface of the device. All of a sudden, a shockingly realistic image of Lily appeared in front of them, flowing out from Stephanie's ICOMP like something out of Star Wars. The fake Lily kept waving different wands and the sound of Ollivander's voice going 'No! No!' accompanied it.

"This part takes a while," Stephanie said. "Let's get to the good part."

She pressed her finger down on her IComp and the image of Lily sped up. After a few seconds, she removed her finger.

"Try it out. Fourteen inches, holly, phoenix feather. Not the same Phoenix as supplied your father's wand's core but…very close."

As soon as she grabbed it, the Lily projection glowed with yellow light. Harry felt his heart break as he heard voices from the recording cheer. Worse, there was a sad, guilty look on both fake-Lily and real Lily's face. She knew he had missed it, this projection, as impressive as it was, was in no way a good replacement for being there for the real thing, and she felt bad because he wasn't there. Knowing her, she had tried to hold it off as much as she could. And he had missed it by minutes. He could tell from his daughter's expression that she actually felt _guilty. _And she shouldn't. It wasn't her fault. I wasn't her fault at all.

He pulled his daughter into a hug. "That's really amazing, Lily."

She smiled sadly. "It's like your wand. Different length and core-source, but a still… Holly with a Phoenix feather."

The imaginary knife in Harry's stomach twisted slightly. And once again, he had missed the beginning of something he shared with his little girl.

"I've got an idea, why don't we head down to Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour?"

Thank God for Hermione. The mention of ice cream made all the kids' ears perk up, even Lily grinned at that. Everyone's attention was redirected from Harry's absence and towards the promise of ice cream. Everyone's but Harry's.

Ginny walked over to Harry and squeezed his hand comfortingly. Usually he immediately felt better whenever she did this, but it didn't work this time. But Harry smiled for her sake and the sake of those in his party.

Stephanie's parents offered to pay for everyone, but Harry insisted on doing so himself and told the kids to get whatever they wanted, no matter how ridiculous the sundae. That certainly made them all happy, but Harry still felt foolish at his vain attempt at compensating for his lack of presence. Ginny and Hermione made faces - they were both extremely health conscious, especially when it came to the children- but didn't say anything.

There turned out to be some trouble, however. Stephanie's parents had a number of strange diet concerns, for themselves and their daughter. Her step-father and mother were both "Vegans", which apparently was like a Vegetarian only they didn't eat milk, cheese, or any dairy products either. Stephanie wasn't vegan, but they insisted that her ice cream be gluten and sugar free. This caused a good amount of confusion and required the workers at the ice cream parlour to cast a number of spells on the Archer-Levitts' orders.

While they were waiting, Stephanie's IComp broke into a pop song. She tapped at the surface a couple of times.

"What is it?" Hugo asked eagerly. Like his Grandfather, Hugo had an obsession with muggles, muggle technology, and really anything muggle-related. He even had his own IComp (a gift from the Grangers), but neither he nor his grandfather could figure out how to work it. He had spent most of the day bombarding Stephanie with questions about it.

Stephanie grunted and rolled her eyes. "I just got an update from Margot, she's on my Rugby team. She's having lunch at Subway Sandwiches and apparently made suicide. Again. It's like, 'Yeah, no kidding, you do that every bloody time you have fast food. So do a lot of other people. It's not like it's some incredible thing. I don't need to hear about it every bloody day. You're not that special!'"

Harry didn't even know where to start. But apparently James did.

"_Suicide?"_ He sputtered.

"It's when you mix different sodas together," She said. "Like, you mix orange soda with root beer and Code Red Mountain Dew and drink it."

Before Harry could ask why this was called suicide, why anyone would do this, or what "Code Red" Mountain Dew was, Rose ventured another, very good question.

"And how do you know that she did that? How do you where she's eating?"

Stephanie held up her IComp. "She said so in her Facebook status."

"_Facebook status?_" Albus asked.

Hugo looked at them. "Facebook is a place in cyberspace where people communicate, play games, and share things with each other."

"Cyberspace?" Hermione interjected. "You mean on the internet? How can you be on the internet here? You don't have a computer or anything!"

"The IComp has an automatic Wifi adapter."

"Wait, you mean muggles can just access the internet from a device anywhere?" Hermione said, aghast. "I've heard of Wifi, but I thought you needed a computer for that!"

"Well, you know how cell phones can pick up a signal from anywhere? Same thing. And the IComp can do almost anything a computer can. I mean, I have my MacBook Spirit, of course, for advanced programs and files and stuff, but yeah, the IComp has net access."

"And through your IComp, you can know whatever anybody is doing at that moment?" Rose asked, mystified.

"Well, not exactly. I mean, they have to have a Facebook and/or twitter account and I have to be friends with or follow them and they have to actually post something online for me to know, but yeah, pretty much." Stephanie said. "Or I can, you know, message or call or IM them and talk to them as long as they have their IComp or computer with them and it's on and all."

By the time they had gotten their orders, all the kids immediately took a table away from the adults, every one of them obsessed with Stephanie's IComp.

"Is the 'Comp' in IComp short for computer? And why does it begin with 'I' anyway?" Albus was asking her.

"No, it's short for companion. And it's a Mac device, and every Mac handheld device starts with 'I'. It stands for the person who own it. Like I have this companion. The IComp when it first came out was called the IPad, but everyone started making jokes about it sounding like an electronic sanitary napkin so a few years after it came out, they changed it." Stephanie was explaining. "I can also read pretty much any book I want, watch movies, and play games on it. And watch this-"

Harry cast a long look at the kids, then turned away from them, not all that interested in the device. In fact, he felt a tad resentful towards it. He had wanted to take advantage of the time he had with them, but they were too busy marveling over that stupid piece of metal to care.

He sat down with the adults.

"Don't feel too bad," Ms. Levitt said. "I didn't get here until very late either. I work in film and theater, and it turned out both my star and his understudy got drunk last night and were too hung over to make it to the first dress rehearsal. Had to find our second understudy, who is appearing in another production, and get him to come. Then I needed to go and pick up our five-year-old from her French lessons because my assistant had a family emergency and our nanny was taking care of our three youngest, who have all developed some ghastly ear infection."

"When did you get here?"

About half an hour before you did." She said, "Right before they headed to Ollivanders. I must say, your society is utterly fascinating."

Harry's heart sank. She had gotten to see her daughter wave her first wand, though.

"I just feel like I never have enough time with them." He said sadly.

"It goes so fast, doesn't it?" Archer said. "I mean, I swear it seems like only last week that Stephanie was running around in Dora the Explorer Footie Pajamas and drinking from a sippy cup."

Harry felt relieved. They seemed to know his pain. "Exactly! I mean, all of a sudden, Lily's going off to Hogwarts. Leaving us. And I mean, when it's your youngest, it seems especially strange because even if you can manage to see that the older ones have grown up, the youngest always seems like your baby."

Ginny rubbed his back. "I feel the same way."

"Yeah, but it's easier for you. You don't have to worry about balancing out work and family as much as I do. Your job isn't as demanding as mine."

His wife's eyes flashed. "_Excuse me_?"

"I mean… um, well, I didn't mean it like that! I mean, of course your career is important and everything, I just mean, like… well, it's like with Hermione…. She's deputy Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement. She and I we… well, our jobs are really high-powered because we have to be the boss and it takes up a lot of time… And then- I mean- I need to shut up, don't I?

"Yes." Ginny said. "Especially considering the news I just got."

"Oh?" Harry asked.

"Well, remember how I got offered the job of Editor-in-Chief of the sports department of _The Prophet_ two years ago and I turned it down until Lily was in school?" Ginny asked.

Harry nodded.

"Well, as it turns out, I've been offered an even better job by my sister-in-law."

"Which one?" Ron asked, who had been watching this exchange with a huge grin.

"Angelina. You know, the one who's Head of the Department of Sports at the Ministry?"

They nodded.

"She's offered me the job as ministry liaison to the international Quidditch League."

Harry's jaw dropped. "When did this happen?"

"Two days ago. I was going to tell you later, what with the school things and work, but since you obviously think my job isn't very demanding, I guess you'd be happy to know that I am going to have one that is." Ginny said, grinning.

Hermione gasped. "Oh my God, Ginny, that's amazing!"

Ginny grinned. And I think it's only fitting. After all, Harry's job requires him to travel, and this job will require the same thing from me."

"That's... great, Honey." Harry knew he had no leg to stand on, but he wasn't really all that happy to hear this. One of the few things he was going to have left after the kids went to school was being able to come to his wife. In fact, that was one of the few things he was looking forward to… More alone time with Ginny. But if she was going to take this post then... there was going to be less time together.

He looked at Ron and Hermione. "Well, I mean, the two of you both have high-powered jobs, want to give us some pointers now that Ginny and I will be in this situation?"

"Er…." Ron gave him a look that told him they'd talk about it later.

Harry looked at the Archer-Levitts. "Well, what about you two? You both must be incredibly busy. And all those kids too, how do you two find the time to spend with your family and balance work?"

"Well, I have Carrie, and I go without sleep. Also, taking kids to work is easy for me because working with large productions means never having to worry about finding a baby sitter, so the kids can be there." Rachel Levitt said.

Harry looked at Ben. "Well, what about you? You must know my pain sometimes, finding the time."

"Er, well, not exactly. I'm a house-husband. I mean, we have a nanny because with seven kids, you kind of need one. But yeah, after I married Rachel, I retired and became a home maker."

The imaginary knife in Harry's stomach was joined by about three more and all of them twisted about three hundred and sixty degrees.


End file.
